Not likely, as the issue is with the newer cards not being recognized by BM cameras. This is why there are so few cards that do work. SD UHSI cards are primarily made to provide support for the consumer prosummer DSLR and mirrorless Cameras, not professional high end video cameras. Most of thr newer cameras support SD UHS II, as does BM’s new cameras, along with CFast cards, normally found on Pro video equipment.

Even Nikon has move away from SD cards are their pro cameras and the new Z cameras, replacing them with QXD cards, and BM went with CFast and UHS II SD interface.

I think the days are numbered for fast (95Mbs) SD UHSI cards as we knew them. Cheers

BMD will a firmware update resolve the issue? Based on your recommendations of approved cards I purchased 14 cards of the 95ms which all work perfectly in the hyperdecks and URSA?I also purchased the 300ms cards and these too do not work in the VIdeo Assist but are fine in the URSA and Hyperdexks so I don’t believe it’s related to speed?

It may be a little more complicated than this but I understand if you’re generalizing.

In one of the other threads on this, a couple of us have confirmed that the 64GB card, SDSXXG-064G-ANCIN works. I should add the caveat that I have just done quick tests but don’t see any problems on my BMPCC.

However, I don’t think anyone has reported working SDSXXG 128GB cards.

Please note that we have discovered an issue with the newer revision of the Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-I SDXC 95 MB/s cards that begin with the product prefix SDSDXXG.

Kristan, as noted above, the 64gb SDSDXXG-O64G-ANCIN does indeed work. And there have been no reports of failures with any Extreme Pro 32GB card, so it may be worth trying.

Finally, it is not true, as claimed in a user post above, that the newer cards don't support the data rates of BM HD cameras. These cards work well in the BMPCC 4K, within their advertised data rates, which can include some UHD modes. The problem is that they're not recognized by the older BMD cameras, and some Sonys as well.

@Kristian Lam - Are you able to provide additional clarification? Per the responses to your post it sounds like you may be implying one but maybe not all of the following: (in regards to the BMPCC)?:

Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s cards with the product prefix SDSDXXG are have the following problem:

-Don't work at all for any type of recording?-Work for ProresHQ but not RAW?-Work if purchased before a certain date? (I have some from early 2018 or late 2017 that appear to be SDSDXXG cards from the presences of "V30" written on them but I cannot be totally sure)-Work for Raw but only in certain sizes? (EX: Maybe 32GB works but not 64 or 128gb)?-Do not work for Raw in any size?

Can you please clarify with more detail which problems exactly occur when using these cards? You can imagine this is super frustrating as I have found that the last 4 I had purchased (out of a total 6 Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s card) have the "V30" tag and all are out of return window.

John Paines wrote:Finally, it is not true, as claimed in a user post above, that the newer cards don't support the data rates of BM HD cameras. These cards work well in the BMPCC 4K, within their advertised data rates, which can include some UHD modes. The problem is that they're not recognized by the older BMD cameras, and some Sonys as well.

Jengabean wrote:@Kristian Lam - Are you able to provide additional clarification? Per the responses to your post it sounds like you may be implying one but maybe not all of the following: (in regards to the BMPCC)?:

Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s cards with the product prefix SDSDXXG are have the following problem:

-Don't work at all for any type of recording?-Work for ProresHQ but not RAW?-Work if purchased before a certain date? (I have some from early 2018 or late 2017 that appear to be SDSDXXG cards from the presences of "V30" written on them but I cannot be totally sure)-Work for Raw but only in certain sizes? (EX: Maybe 32GB works but not 64 or 128gb)?-Do not work for Raw in any size?

Can you please clarify with more detail which problems exactly occur when using these cards? You can imagine this is super frustrating as I have found that the last 4 I had purchased (out of a total 6 Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s card) have the "V30" tag and all are out of return window.

Please advise and thank you!!!!

Jonathan

These cards do not show up or will not be recognized.

If you have them, I strongly encourage you to contact Sandisk tech support and mention that you are going to be using them with Blackmagic Design products.

Kristian Lam wrote:These cards do not show up or will not be recognized.

If you have them, I strongly encourage you to contact Sandisk tech support and mention that you are going to be using them with Blackmagic Design products.

Kristian, Interestingly after my initial research and reading this and other threads that I found and looked at all 6 of my cards again. This oldest 2 are pre-"V30" label 32Gb cards and work flawlessly. The newer 4 are all "V30" label cards (3 are 32Gb and the most recent is 64Gb). So far all cards are recognized in my BMPCC all record proresHQ clips flawlessly. Since the 64Gb was the newest (and most likely to have issues based on anecdotal evidence from other threads that seem to imply 32Gb cards are not affected), i decided to format as exFAT today in camera, and shoot short ProresHQ and Raw clips. Both recorded as expected and do not show any sign of dropping frames.

End result of my very basic initial testing is that all 4 of my "V30" cards appear to work perfectly, especially if the 'fail state' with this Extreme Pro card issue is the the cards are not recognized by the camera.

I'm not sure if these steps have any bearing but in case they do. I'm interested in working with others to try and identify why some "V30" cards work and some do not so that we can hopefully hone in on the reason/identifying info that tells us which "V30" cards are good and which are N/G:

-My BMPCC has an older firmware revision (one of the last BM camera firmware updates before they stopped adding features for the BMPCC).-As mentioned before 3x 32GB cards seem perfect. Newest (1x 64Gb) also is recognized and appears to record HQ and Raw correctly on initial short tests. Perhaps this issue primarily affects 128Gb and above? (Note: I'm sure I have seen at least a few problems with their 64Gb cards so I'm not sure what makes mine different. I have not see reports of issues so far with 32Gb cards.-I format all of my cards in-camera only. I have used both exFAT and HFS+ with success but only use exFAT now (and therefore for the most recent V30 cards I bought).-All of my V30 cards were ordered through Amazon direct (not a 3rd part) and all before Oct 2018.-I do not have the package but I can transcribe and include the serial numbers on the back of the SD Cards themselves if they help us hone in on any valuable details.

Denny Smith wrote:I think the days are numbered for fast (95Mbs) SD UHSI cards as we knew them.

It does seem like the writing is on the wall. A couple of questions in terms of options for the future:

1. In general, how long can one expect existing SD cards to last (how many reformats/reuse cycles)? I have all the SD cards I need for now, but eventually they'll start to fail and at that point I could be left with stranded assets.

2. This problem affects the Video Assist monitor as well. Unless BMD comes out with a new line of VAs that can record to different media, should we be looking at monitors like the Video Devices Pix-E 5 or 7" monitors as a future-proof option? Those can record to mSATA drives in addition to SD. This could be a way for those of us using the older BMD cameras to continue to use them once compatible SD cards are no longer available.

Brad Hurley wrote:This problem affects the Video Assist monitor as well. Unless BMD comes out with a new line of VAs that can record to different media, should we be looking at monitors like the Video Devices Pix-E 5 or 7" monitors as a future-proof option? Those can record to mSATA drives in addition to SD. This could be a way for those of us using the older BMD cameras to continue to use them once compatible SD cards are no longer available.

I’m willing to bet you’ll be seeing a new VA this year for this reason. One with a built it SSD support, considering SSDs are now getting cheaper.

Hey Kristian,Are we going to get BRAW on the Pocket for Christmas this year? I have older versions of the card and can barely record ProRes LT at 60fps anyway... However, ,I used an SSD through USB-C with great results. My SD cards will only be useful on the Pocket if we get BRAW.

We are also experiencing issues with the card not being recognized with the Extreme Pro SDXC V30 128GB versions of these cards on our Micro Cinema. The camera doesn't see the cards at all. Ours end in 1766G

bdoug399 wrote:We are also experiencing issues with the card not being recognized with the Extreme Pro SDXC V30 128GB versions of these cards on our Micro Cinema. The camera doesn't see the cards at all. Ours end in 1766G

Those are the SDSDXXG cards Krisian is referencing. I too have two with batch number ending in 1766G that don’t work. (Along with 8 others from two other batches, though I don’t have the batch numbers handy.

We have several 256GB Extreme Pro SDXC cards with SDSDXXG product prefix and they all work fine in the Video Assist. But, indeed, I bought one 128GB card with the SDSDXXG prefix and it is not recognized in the Video Assist (but it's recognized in a computer).

Both the 256GB cards and the 128GB card with the SDSDXXG prefix have V30, U3, Class 10, 95MB/s written on the front.

We have several 128GB Extreme Pro SDXC cards from a couple of years ago that have the prefix SDSDXPA (and no V30 reference on the card) and they all work fine in the Video Assist.

This sounds like it may have been just a bad batch of 128GB cards from SanDisk, since it sounds like 32GB, 64GB, and 256GB cards are working ok. Our 128GB card that doesn't work does end with 1766G.

I contacted SanDisk about this a few weeks ago and they said the following (quoted from live chat with Dave B):

Please allow me to inform you that we have discovered that certain host devices may not currently work with your SanDisk SD card. SanDisk cards are constantly updated and optimized.

We would suggest you to use UHS II card for your camera for better performance.

We are committed to the best quality products for our customers and would like to offer you with a possible comparable replacement card SanDisk Extreme Pro 300MB/s 128GB SDXC UHS II card (SDSDXPK-128G).

I have since been approved for RMA, sent in my two cards (ending in 1766G), and they have received them, but the 128GB UHS-II cards are out of stock, so I'm stuck waiting.

This could point to some bad batches since they're willing to replace them, but I was shocked they would replace UHS-I cards with UHS-II cards that cost 4+ times as much. That might mean all current batches are "bad" or that they know they did change something in the SDSDXXG line that broke compatibility with BMD and are willing to upgrade our cards since they made this change without moving to a new model number? (I'm completely speculating here…)

sabaugh wrote:I have since been approved for RMA, sent in my two cards (ending in 1766G), and they have received them, but the 128GB UHS-II cards are out of stock, so I'm stuck waiting.

This could point to some bad batches since they're willing to replace them, but I was shocked they would replace UHS-I cards with UHS-II cards that cost 4+ times as much. That might mean all current batches are "bad" or that they know they did change something in the SDSDXXG line that broke compatibility with BMD and are willing to upgrade our cards since they made this change without moving to a new model number? (I'm completely speculating here…)

sabaugh wrote:I have since been approved for RMA, sent in my two cards (ending in 1766G), and they have received them, but the 128GB UHS-II cards are out of stock, so I'm stuck waiting.

This could point to some bad batches since they're willing to replace them, but I was shocked they would replace UHS-I cards with UHS-II cards that cost 4+ times as much. That might mean all current batches are "bad" or that they know they did change something in the SDSDXXG line that broke compatibility with BMD and are willing to upgrade our cards since they made this change without moving to a new model number? (I'm completely speculating here…)

It does sound like they are coming out with a new UHS-I 128 gig card soon that may solve this problem; see further down in that topic I linked to above.

Yeah, I saw that about UHS-II. I figure that if they don't work, I will still come out ahead since the cards I RMAd were past the return period and I'll have a couple UHS-II cards to use in other devices that require them or just sell off for a profit.

I am intrigued by the new cards SanDisk is releasing. I'll be returning the 8 other SDSDXXG-128G cards I've purchased trying to find some that work in the Video Assist for some of these (assuming they work).

I ordered the new 170MB/s SDSDXXY 128GB card from B&H Thursday and it arrived today. It behaves the same as the new 95MB/s SDSDXXG 128GBcards in my Video Assist (non-4K). It shows "No Card" even with the card in it. I tried reformatting it in my Mac, but still no luck.

However, the two 300MB/s SDSDXPK 128GB cards SanDisk RMA'd me for my 95MB/s SDSDXXG do work in the VA, just cost over 5x as much as the 95MB/s to purchase more...

Any alternative suggestions besides the 300MB/s SanDisk cards? For my uses, I never record over ProRes LT, so I shouldn't need 300MB/s, however, I do record long segments around 1h 15m, so I need at least 128GB cards.

I just received the new Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-1 128GB 170MB/sec card that was hoped to be compatible with the BMPCC. Like the new V30 SDSDXXG cards the BMPCC would not recognize this new card. I tried to format on my computer to see if the camera would then recognize it but it still didn't. Pretty disappointing. Going on a studio shoot next week and am going to record to my old cards and at same time record HDMI out to a Hyperdeck Shuttle for back up.

Someone here has mentioned Wise cards but they must be outside the US. Only Wise cards I can find in US are CF cards.

Does this apply to the new SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO UHS-I SDXC Memory Card MFR # SDSDXXY-128G-ANCIN as well? These new cards read 170 MB/s, but write speeds are min 30 to 90 max (same as the 95 MB/3 cards).

I've just bought a Video Assist (5") and am awaiting delivery, and the extremely restricted list of compatible SD cards is causing me significant concern. The SDSDXP cards are very hard to find (I recently bought three 128GB cards from Asia via ebay, but they sent me SDSDXX cards instead, so I am returning them). I want to record conference sessions up to 2 hours long, hence 128GB is my preferred capacity.

My question is this: has anyone tried MicroSDXC cards in an SD adapter? There seems to be a wealth of potentially compatible UHS-I options (including Samsung's Evo Plus) at a fraction of the price of the known-working SanDisk cards... Just curious to know if that could be a neat sidestep of the increasing rarity and cost of the few SanDisk SDXC cards that we know work in the Video Assist etc.

andrewc-gb wrote:I've just bought a Video Assist (5") and am awaiting delivery, and the extremely restricted list of compatible SD cards is causing me significant concern. The SDSDXP cards are very hard to find (I recently bought three 128GB cards from Asia via ebay, but they sent me SDSDXX cards instead, so I am returning them). I want to record conference sessions up to 2 hours long, hence 128GB is my preferred capacity.

My question is this: has anyone tried MicroSDXC cards in an SD adapter? There seems to be a wealth of potentially compatible UHS-I options (including Samsung's Evo Plus) at a fraction of the price of the known-working SanDisk cards... Just curious to know if that could be a neat sidestep of the increasing rarity and cost of the few SanDisk SDXC cards that we know work in the Video Assist etc.

Quick update, I received the Video Assist this afternoon, and have ordered a 128GB Samsung Evo Plus UHS-I MicroSDXC card (part: MB-MC128GA/EU); it is a U3 C10 card with 90MB/s write speed, so it should work OK. I will test it out on Monday, hopefully, and will post the results here.

andrewc-gb wrote:I've just bought a Video Assist (5") and am awaiting delivery, and the extremely restricted list of compatible SD cards is causing me significant concern. The SDSDXP cards are very hard to find (I recently bought three 128GB cards from Asia via ebay, but they sent me SDSDXX cards instead, so I am returning them). I want to record conference sessions up to 2 hours long, hence 128GB is my preferred capacity.

My question is this: has anyone tried MicroSDXC cards in an SD adapter? There seems to be a wealth of potentially compatible UHS-I options (including Samsung's Evo Plus) at a fraction of the price of the known-working SanDisk cards... Just curious to know if that could be a neat sidestep of the increasing rarity and cost of the few SanDisk SDXC cards that we know work in the Video Assist etc.

Quick update, I received the Video Assist this afternoon, and have ordered a 128GB Samsung Evo Plus UHS-I MicroSDXC card (part: MB-MC128GA/EU); it is a U3 C10 card with 90MB/s write speed, so it should work OK. I will test it out on Monday, hopefully, and will post the results here.

I've just inserted this 128GB Samsung memory card (MB-MC128GA/EU) and the VA detected it immediately, was able to format it, and seems to be recording without issue with all the VA's codecs (albeit I'm using 1080p50 and no larger resolution).

I never got any problems with those cards.The cards are working 100%. I often shootingraw 3:1 at 60 fps and everything works fine.

I purchased them two years ago. March 2017.Maybe I am just lucky that those cards are working?!I don´t know. Thanks for the information. I was wonderingwhy those cards are not on the "Pocket 4k" list. Now I know.When I got my new Pocket 4K I will try to use those cards, too.

maybe BM can be more specific because, as I wrote, my SDSDXXG cards working fine.Every single time.

I know raw3:1 is compressed. I have to set it to raw3:1 if I want to shoot in 60fps.I can also record "lossless raw" when shooting 24,25, 30 fps.I have no problems with my cards at all.

The issue is not that those cards are to slow. The issue is thatthey should not working at all. But mine is working fine.

Mine is "SDSDXXG". 128 GB. I got three. Every card is working for 2 years now.That is all I am saying. Nothing more. Nothing less. So should i´ve been worried. Probably not. I think some "SDSDXXG" might work, some might not work. Blackmagic (but also Sandisc) should be more specific or .... I don´t know.

Kristian Lam can you please give us an indication if BM will update the firmware of the BMPCC, BMMCC and VA's. Yes we know it's all SANDISK's fault but if SONY can release firmware to address this problem why cant BM.

See SONY press release.

Sony has released Firmware Update 2.10 for a7 III & a7R III cameras with a fix for a bug found in the previous firmware version 2.00. This update also resolves an incompatibility issue caused by a recent change to the design of SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-1 SDXC cards.

I would love BM to release a firmware fix for this issue but I very much doubt it'll happen, and probably for good reason. The A7 III and A7R III are only a year and a half old and so Sony could very easily dedicate resource to creating firmware for the issue. Unfortunately the BMPCC is almost a six year old camera and so I can understand, although don't like, the reasoning behind no more firmware updates for our beloved camera.

Still, we can hope (nudge nudge Kristian)...

I've just bought three cards from different suppliers with differing serials. Will test the cards with RAW recording and let you know what the results are next week. May or not be useful for some people.

Sandeep Gill wrote:I would love BM to release a firmware fix for this issue but I very much doubt it'll happen, and probably for good reason. The A7 III and A7R III are only a year and a half old and so Sony could very easily dedicate resource to creating firmware for the issue. Unfortunately the BMPCC is almost a six year old camera and so I can understand, although don't like, the reasoning behind no more firmware updates for our beloved camera.

While this makes sense for Blackmagic as a business decision related to the BMPCC, which is now discontinued, the Video Assist, Video Assist 4K, and Micro Cinema Camera are still actively marketed items people are buying new and unable to use because there are no cards available that work. It is not a good business decision for Blackmagic to leave it that way.

Sound Devices actually sells their own-branded SD cards and recommends people use them in their recorders (I assume they're rebranded cards from other manufacturers, but still). That could be another solution: BMD-branded SD cards certified to work in specific products.

the Video Assist, Video Assist 4K, and Micro Cinema Camera are still actively marketed items people are buying new and unable to use because there are no cards available that work. It is not a good business decision for Blackmagic to leave it that way.

Yes exactly my point. I have invested so much with battery solutions, viewfinders etc just for it to gather dust! I'm actively looking to find second hand cards now.

So i logged a ticket with BM to see if i can solicit some sort of response more than the usual...but Alas.

I responded to this by asking for BM to at least give us an alternative as no card to date...not even UHSII have been proven to be reliable RAW media.

Our Product Development team are aware of the behaviour with the newer revision of the Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-I SDXC 95 MB/s cards that begin with the product prefix SDSDXXG and have the V30 rating on them. These cards do not currently function as expected with the following products:

So this is not going well. I got told again to take this matter up with SANDISK.

So this is my response.

Hi as previously stated i have contacted SANDISK and they referred me back to Blackmagic meaning that we are now going in circles. Lets remove SANDISK from this conversation then. Can you please give me a working alternative SD brand that is guaranteed and tested to reliably capture RAW as the BM community has not found any yet.

The card pictured above *should* work --however, there's no assurance that Amazon will actually send you that particular model. Vendors often display a picture of an older version of the card, but ship the current production version, which will not work.

Hi, new to the forums and signed up mainly to post this info. I also just bought a Micro and a couple of Sandisk cards that are not working! I opened up a dialogue with both Sandisk and Blackmagic about it, and while Blackmagic's tech support was much nicer about it, neither company seems to want to own this problem.

For those like me who just need a card to record on NOW, I can report that I purchased this card from Amazon:

Not sure if I can post a link or not, but search the product name and it'll come right up, and the seller is Sony themselves.

It read the card immediately and I was able to run off about a minute of RAW footage without dropping any frames. I'll do some more test shooting in a couple of days and report back how it behaves, but so far, so good.

As you have seen from the comment by Kristian Lam our Senior Product Manager on the forum, I am afraid that the information we have provided so far is all we are able to tell you from Technical Support right now.

A problem has been identified with certain cards, and we have made that manufacturer aware of the problem. As there are different versions of the same Sandisk product under the same name, it should be possible for Sandisk to provide you with the correct model number. However I am afraid this is not something Blackmagic Design can be responsible for.

I have contacted the Product Manager for Pocket Camera again for any further update on this matter.

At this time, there are no other officially certified SD cards for Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. It's very possible that other SD cards that exceed the specifications, especially the read/write speeds of the certified Sandisk cards, will work.

2 Things stand out for me.

1. They are not truly aware of the extent of the problem if they think you can contact SANDISK and get a working card from them. 2. Not taking much accountability for designing and marketing a RAW capable camera around a single card manufacturers product.

Why should it take months to give us some insight around the options...ie can they do what Sony did and release a firmware fix for SANDISK's screwup...or can they at least give us an alternative...why should we be left to fend for ourselves. Is BM support always this slow to come up with something useful?